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How Will the Van Nuys District Attorney's Office Implement the New Los Angeles District Attorney's Policies? Right now, across Los Angeles county as the new year approaches, the new head Deputy District Attorney George Gascon has imposed a number of new crucial policies and there are prosecutors ...

Right now, because of the Coronavirus, the Supreme Court Justice of the California Supreme Court has ruled that all bail in Los Angeles county is zero.  There are some exceptions to this rule related to more serious cases like murder, sex crime cases, people who have strikes on their record. But ...

I had a case a number of years ago in downtown Los Angeles where my client was charged with murder.  He had been involved in a bar fight with another person and that other person actually waited outside for him and my client ended up stabbing him with a knife.  It was captured on video and there ...

I had a client once who was trying to drive to work and ended up getting in an accident with a motorcycle and the motorcycle driver died.  After a year-long investigation, prosecutors charged him with involuntary manslaughter under California Penal Code 192(b). He was looking at a criminal record...

This was one of the more interesting cases I've done in my career and I've been doing this a long time — 26 years.  I've worked for the DA's office, a Superior Court judge, and then since 1994 I've been a criminal defense attorney, only defending people who are charged with crimes. In this partic...

I tried a case where my client was accused of domestic violence against his wife.  She had called the police.  They came out and whatever they saw and heard, they ended up looking for my client and arresting him.  He wasn't home at the time. He had gone out with his son and when he came back the ...

A number of years ago, downtown Los Angeles was pretty much overloaded with cases.  I don't know whether it was just because there was a rash of crime or whether they just did not have an efficient system. I'm talking now about the main downtown courthouse — 210 West Temple.  I had a rape case do...

I had a client who was charged with California Health and Safety Code 11351 HS selling drugs.  She was involved with another co-defendant allegedly in selling the drugs.  She was arrested and she pretty much was adamant that she did not sell drugs to anybody.  She was not involved in selling drugs...

A number of years ago, I had a big California Penal Code 261 PC date rape case and my client was charged with doing something very serious and he was looking at both prison time, registering as a sex offender, and a host of other repercussions.  He was a student-athlete and obviously, he would...

A number of years ago, I represented an athlete at a major college who was accused of California Penal Code 261 PC date rape.  Obviously, I won't give all the specifics about it as to not reveal who it is. However, in the end, we were able to convince the police not even to file the case in the first place....

I represented a client who I liked a lot because he was a good guy and he was charged with a road rage-related offense based on an issue he had on a freeway with another driver.  The big dispute in the case was these guys ending up crashing into each other while they were mad at each other. One of ...

Years ago I had a case that I tried in the San Fernando courthouse of California Penal Code 245(a)(1) assault with a deadly weapon.  My client basically woke up and he was hallucinating, probably because he had taken drugs — a combination of drugs — and he believed that there was somebody in his...

I had a case where I was defending somebody charged with a California Penal Code 211 PC robbery at a particular store in the San Fernando Valley and I remember my client giving me kind of their version of events and then comparing that to the police report and just kind of scratching my head and...

I was trying a big California Penal Code 243(d) PC battery causing serious bodily injury case where my client was an Uber driver who ended up kicking passengers out of his car because they were trying to jam five passengers in a car that could not have five passengers. One of the passengers...

I had a case a number of years ago where my client was charged with California Penal Code 459 PC  residential burglary.  It was actually a pretty weak case against him but the prosecutors had filed it anyway.  Basically, whoever the burglar was had gone up to burglarize a house and apparently was...

A number of years ago I represented a client charged with 18 U.S.C. § 2252 child pornography, who will obviously remain anonymous, but he had thousands of images, including photographs and videos of child porn. Normally, he would have been facing 7 to 10 years in federal prison, but I was able...

If you have a criminal case pending in Los Angeles, how can you avoid jail time due to the virus? This is a good question because a lot of people are fearful of jail, but when you combine the fact that there's the Coronavirus and you could end up going to LA County jail and being exposed to the....

If you have a criminal case pending in Los Angeles, do you have to appear in court or disobey the Governor's order regarding the coronavirus? This is a good question because the Governor's order right now as I put this content in the website says that nobody can leave except for essential things...  

t's an interesting question.  Based on the Governor's order, you would figure that all of the courthouses in Los Angeles would just close down.  Unfortunately, because they are viewed as critical need when it comes to criminal defense, the Los Angeles courts are open. In fact, all 38 courts are open...

California Penal Code 31 PC aiding and abetting is a legal theory as to how prosecutors can capture additional suspects in a criminal case, beyond the principal actor. For instance, in a bar fight, two people attack two other people and one person hits someone with a bottle, cutting their eye. The man...

The police derive a lot of cases from searching people's cars and one big trick that they have is they'll pull you over.  They'll order you out of the car for the officer's safety and then they'll claim they have to go back in the car to search the car for your driver's license, your insurance information, your...

Excessive force is an interesting concept because the way I use it in criminal defense is, as a defense to certain crimes that my client is charged with.  For example, California Penal Code 148(a)(1) resisting arrest, and battery on a police officer (CALCRIM 945). Some of these other charges that the police...

This is an interesting area of the law and it's usually where insurance companies feel like they are going to have to pay out money or they've already paid out money on some auto insurance claim that they don't think is either fair, such as California Penal Code 548 – damaging or abandoning a vehicle...

I've been practicing now in the Van Nuys courthouse for over 25 years, handled hundreds of criminal cases there and I have a pretty good feel for the time frame of most cases.  Once I sit down with the client and get all the information related to the case, I can usually give you a pretty good idea of...

Joyriding, also known as taking an owner's vehicle without their consent and defined under California Vehicle Code 10851 VC can have serious consequences.  You used to be subject to potentially three years in prison, but now since Governor Brown has changed the prison and county jail system, a...